Feminist Criticism of Frankenstein and The Yellow Wallpaper

   Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, sheds light on the importance of appearance through the tale of an unwanted creation that is never given a chance by society. Ironically, the supposed beast was initially much more compassionate and thoughtful than his creator, until his romantic and innocent view of the human race was diminished by the cruelty and injustice he unduly bore. Not only does the creature suffer the prejudice of an appearance-based society, but other situations and characters in the novel force the reader to reflect their own hasty judgment. The semi- gothic novel includes several instances of societal prejudice that include the isolation and outcast of Frankenstein's creation,

In Erin Hawley’s article “The Bride and Her Afterlife: Female Frankenstein Monster on Page and Screen” she makes the main point of the sexism that is within “The Bride of Frankenstein”. She supports this argument with the main point that since the bride is not able to talk stands for women’s silence itself. She also uses other points to make this such as the fact that she only in the movie for a short period of time and that she were just created for looks. While this could be a strong argument, she seems to be trying too hard to make these connections in the movie; she sees these points as sexism, but they all have reasonable explanations.

One such aspect of Shelley’s life portrayed in the novel was the role of women in society. In general, the predominant contenders in literature in the Romantic era were men. Mary Shelley, who was tutored by her father, had to publish her novel anonymously because it would not have been accepted otherwise. In Romantic literature, women were depicted as passive with a sense for nature and intuition. This can be seen in Frankenstein during Victor’s description of Elizabeth Lavenza: “While I admired...pretension” (Volume I, Chapter I, p 39). This quote can be viewed as an oppression of women due to the patriarchal structure of the language, as well as an emphasis on the nature of women. Mary Shelley also criticizes this oppression, but does not criticize overtly. This may be due to the fact that Shelley read her mother’s works as a child, and was influenced by the pro-feminist ideals that her mother advocated for. In addition, Frankenstein, at its core, is an expression of Shelley’s political viewpoints. The years 1811 to 1817 were ones of severe deprivation and hardship for the new working class created by the Industrial

For centauries, women have been forced to live life in the outskirts of a male dominated society. During the 1800’s, the opportunities for women were extremely limited and Mary Shelly does an excellent job in portraying this in her gothic novel, Frankenstein. Furthermore, in this novel, Mary Shelly shows how society considers women to be possessions rather than independent human beings. In addition, the female characters rely heavily on men for support and survival, thus proving their inability to do it on their own. Lastly, the female characters in this novel are in many ways victimized by the male characters. In conclusion, in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, the female characters always fulfill the limited and archetypical roles that

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly was published in 1818. Her parent had undoubtedly influenced her ways of writing. Her father, William Godwin is famous with his piece “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice while her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” is two prominent radical writers who call for reform during French Revolution. Bringing both feminism and radical views from her parents, Shelley critiques women’s weak, docile and uneducated character. She also shows how women are often degraded and treated unjustly. The reason she brought the issues forward is to make women realize that they should improve their position and women should not conform to the dogma that they are always weak.

In the 18th century, a woman by the name of Mary Wollstonecraft became one of the first great proponents of feminism, a movement that promoted the rights and abilities of women. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, feminism was still on the rise. The movement spawned a generation of great women, and thus, many interesting sayings. In Frankenstein, a book written by Mary Shelley, who happens to be Wollstonecraft’s daughter, the main character Victor creates a monster that would come to rip his family apart and destroy his life. But if one key thing had changed, his downfall would have never happened. When thinking of this book, one specific saying from this era of feminism comes to mind; “behind every great man is a great women”. The lack of prominent and influential women in Victor Frankenstein 's life is what ultimately leads to his undoing.

The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, and the article “Of the Pernicious Effects” by Mary Wollstonecraft, both have relations when regarding the importance of feminism during their time periods. Throughout Shelley’s novel feminism is addressed because she uses female characters to further her plot and display her viewpoints. If Wollstonecraft evaluated the female characters in Shelley’s novel, she would realize that Elizabeth, Justine, and Safie all show an importance to the flow of the novel and the purpose of equality that Shelley is sending about feminism through these characters.

Women in the 18th century were often referred to as “ weak, illogical, timid, or even emotionless” ( Radek-Hill, “ Women in Literature”). This idea of women will stick around all the way until the mid 1900s, and has played a big historical issue for decades. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the idea of women being inferior to men is shown in many ways and covers throughout the book. One way she shows feminism is how she constructed the book to where the women in the book play a significantly lesser role than men. Victor Frankenstein, and his monster are the two big roles in the book, leaving little light for the female characters. When you analyze the male characters, you will notice that their actions throughout the book lead to the death and suffering of a female character. Victor is the most to blame for this because he did not speak up about his monsters creation, who in

The 1818 book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the 1972 movie Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks both portray the differences in feminism regarding the cultural times through the character of Elizabeth. When Mary Shelley wrote the book Frankenstein, she was on a mission to pursue equal rights in education for her daughter. In Shelley's time, the only way to show feminine empowerment was to be literate and well-poised, which readers can see in certain passages featuring Elizabeth in Shelley's book. In the 1970's, when the movie Young Frankenstein was made, female empowerment was emphasized with a movement called “lipstick feminism”, which encouraged women to

In Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein is about a young scientist named Victor Frankenstein who creates a creature through the studies of science, Victor abandons the creature leaving him helpless, the creature then realizing he will never belong in society cursing Victor causing Victor only misery and destruction.  In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark” is about a scientist named Aylmer who seeks to remove his wife Georgiana's birthmark so that she can be perfect, but in doing so kills her instead because of the strength of the potion. In Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark” the characters Elizabeth and Georgina represent the women’s roles motif expressing the theme that women are seen as begin disposable because men view women as only having one purpose in society which is to serve others.

Before Feminism in the United States there was Feminism found all around the world. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein She projects women as passive and only being in there to be as a love interest to men. Mary Shelley is the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft on of the leading Feminist in the Romantic Era so it is surprising that she would demoralize women like she did in Frankenstein or is Mary making a feminist stand because even though the book has no strong female leads its full of men and the mistakes they make

    Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer.

Feminism advocates women’s rights based on the equality of the sexes. Elizabeth Barrett Browning may have been one of the first feminists of Britain, during the nineteenth century, women were still viewed as inferior to men. Although men at the time did not believe women had a greater purpose in

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus is a gothic horror novel that it has been written by Mary Shelley and was published in 1818. “Is one of the most influential literary text in English. It is a novel which is embedded in the cultural and political period we call Romantic” (Allen, 1). It also encompasses the nature, monstrosity, secrecy and demonstrates what the consequences are if someone uses dangerously his knowledges and attempts to exceed his limits. In this essay some parts of the novel will be critically analyzed and also the novel will be seen through a feminist perspective.